School Girls' Stories - Year 2

Chapter 51 – The End of Another Year

“Did you get in?”

“I’m on the way there right now.”

“You’ll call me as soon as you know?”

“Yes I will. Have you seen Yuki, is she holding up okay?”

“She’s… not doing too well. Fuji,” Shai hesitated, switching the phone from one ear to another. “Fuji, there’s a lot going on with her. If you get in, I don’t know if I am going to be around enough for her. Shu is starting to walk, and he’s going on one year, and he needs a lot of my attention. I’m barely doing it between Kyoei, a nanny, my father, and myself. Yuki really needs a friend.”

Fuji sighed into the phone. Shai could hear her breathing increase as Fuji began to climb the pavement stairs that would lead them to Tokyo University. Shai knew Devilin was there with her but she ignored that fact. Fuji had made many mistakes over the last year, but if she was accepted to Tokyo University it might turn her back around.

“I know,” was all Fuji could say. “I will be home late today, and hey, if I don’t get in, I’ll be there for her as I try to find out which college I am going to go to. Or study for another year to get into this one.”

“I want you to get in,” Shai insisted. “I don’t want you to not get in, I just think Yuki is in need of a friend. Fuji, you are strong and choose to do things on your own. I, I have Kyoei who is a pretty solid rock, but Yuki only really had Shinwa the last year and now he’s gone and… Kaori’s back, Fuji.”

“What?”.

“Kaori’s back.”

“I can’t hear you!” Fuji cried into the phone. Shai heard the commotion going on around Fuji in the background. She must have reached the school and was growing closer to the test results where their student numbers would be waiting for them to show who had been accepted and who had not been.

“Come straight here when you get home!” Shai called into the phone, slightly embarrassed at almost having to scream. She flushed, though no one was in the kitchen with her.

“Will do!” Fuji called back, then the two of them were cut off.

Shai sighed and placed the phone in the cradle and looked around the kitchen. It was not that long ago she had tried to comfort Fuji while Danko sat in her apartment debating what to take with her when she turned around to runaway.

Kyoei entered the room, carrying Shu under one arm carelessly, which the baby enjoyed immensely, crying out his joy and looking to Mommy like she was going to ruin his fun. Shai smiled at Kyoei and her son.

“Did she get in?” Kyoei asked.

Shai began to shake her head, but she knew he would think of that as a no. “She doesn’t know yet,” she said. “She was just on her way there when I called. I don’t think she’s going to be able to tell us until she gets back tonight.”

“I hope she does,” Kyoei admitted. “Then she’ll get away from Devilin.”

Shai smirked and stood up to take her son from her boyfriend, leaning up and giving him a warm kiss before leading her son to the table to sit him down for his breakfast. “What about Amatsu?” she smirked Kyoei’s way.

Kyoei just shrugged his muscular shoulders, pulling up to the table and sitting across from her. “He, at least, will not get her distracted from her school work.”

“You think so?” Shai asked amused.

Kyoei watched her for a moment as she unscrewed the cap on the baby food she would feed her son. “You are starting to sound like an old lady,” he joked.

Shai eyed him for a moment, then sighed and admitted, “I’m beginning to feel like one.”

~*~

Fuji closed the phone and looked up at the swarm of people that had piled along the wall, looking up at the numbers, all hoping for their number to be there. A few were crying, a few were whooping in joy, but the majority of the people were all just staring, looking and not looking all at the same moment.

“You all right?” Devilin asked beside her. “You are looking kind of pale. Did Shai have bad news?”

Fuji shook her head, her stomach once more in the knots it had claimed yesterday. Had it only been yesterday when she had been at this school? Only yesterday when she had taken an exam to tell her if she would make it, one of the last minute test takers, one of the ones who had the least likely chance to gain a spot in the school.

“You aren’t nervous, are you?” Devilin asked, a bit of surprise lilting his voice. “Fuji, no one here is smarter than you.”

Fuji shook her head, brushing strands of hair behind her ear. “That’s not true,” she insisted. “I was nervous, I had not been preparing enough, I…” Fuji shook her head again. “I just have to go see if my number is there.” She began to stomp away, moving through the crowd, pushing people who would not budge blatantly out of her way. She had to know. She just had to end the suspense.

Behind her a voice cried, “Fuji!” and she barely turned. She knew it was Amatsu’s voice, and for a moment her heart skipped that familiar beat, but she was quickly taken in to her own world once more. She flowed back to the knowledge of knowing, of just needing the answers. She continued through, barely noticing that another set of hands was helping move people out of her way, and then Amatsu’s hand wrapped around hers and they pushed through the rest of the crowd together, leaving Devilin far behind, looking in through the crowd trying to spot Fuji’s frame.

Together Amatsu and Fuji walked up to the white scrolls of paper that read off numbers, numbers that were not even close together. So many people did not make it, so many people were walking away with their hopes dashed. Fuji squeezed Amatsu’s hand and they both looked up, looking for their fates on a white scroll.